Keywords: Data integration, MEPS, Health services research, clinical trials
Recent changes in the provision and organization of health care in the U.S. have served to enhance the importance of research and evidence-based policymaking to address issues focused upon access, use, and expenditures for care. The quality and content of national population-based economic and health care surveys to inform policy formulation are enhanced through collaborations that facilitate integrated designs that include the conduct of inter-connected surveys to medical providers, businesses, and medical facilities. Analytical capacity is dramatically enhanced through their connectivity to existing secondary data sources at higher levels of aggregation and via direct linkages to additional health and socioeconomic measures acquired for the same sample units from other sources of survey or administrative data. Attention is given to collaborative efforts at the national level that have facilitated these data integration efforts that serve to advance health and health care research efforts and policy formulation. The presentation highlights analytical enhancements achieved in the MEPS and clinical trial Project Data Sphere® content realized through these data integration efforts.